Tagged: Dark Horse

Go go Godzilla! 51st years of stomping in US

Go go Godzilla! 51st years of stomping in US

  • News
  • April 27, 2007

Fifty one years ago today in New York City, the horrors of atomic mutation came home to roost as a guy in a giant rubber suit a gigantic lizard the size of a whale came to life on the silver screen in Godzilla, King Of The Monsters.

Starring Raymond Burr as Steve Martin (?) the big galoot would later go on to star in comics from Marvel and Dark Horse, an animated series (Godzooky!) oodles of video games and dozens of other films, including this personal favorite…

…and the inevitable sequel. Because it’s so rare for Godzilla to do a sequel.

 

 

Sigh. History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men.

JOHN OSTRANDER: Perverse Pleasures

  • News
  • April 19, 2007

We all know what a “guilty pleasure” is – some movie, book, song, whatever that we are ashamed to say we actually like – nay, sometimes love. While we may be embarrassed by our affection we should, at the very least, be able to claim, “Well, anyway, I like it.” Even if nobody else does. I have my list of those and I suspect you do as well.

This is not the same as the strange, little known things that you love that are, in fact, pretty good. I have my list of those things also and it might be useful to talk about these odd delights at some other time.

Neither of the above are the same as what I call my “perverse pleasures.” I’m not talking about sexual kinks and peccadilloes. I’m talking about music, books, movies and so on that I know, in fact, are awful and that I don’t like but feel a weird compulsion to own them anyway.

On to confession.

The first item is Pat Boone’s 1997 CD In a Metal Mood; No More Mr. Nice Guy wherein the King of White Bread Music decides to do his covers of Heavy Metal songs. We’re talking songs such as Stairway to Heaven, Smoke on the Water, Love Hurts, Enter Sandman and plenty of others. Oh, my ears! He doesn’t do them as Heavy Metal, of course; his arrangements turns them into Big Band tunes. When Mr. Boone sings, he’s usually off the rhythm, flat, or just speaks the lyrics. I have yet to get through a complete cut.

This is completed with a cover shot of the aging Mr. Boone in leather pants, leather vest, and no shirt, fixing the buyer with a steely stare that defies said buyer not to purchase the CD. I, of course, succumbed.

To top it all off, I was doing a guest shot on my friend Bill Nutt’s radio show, The Nutt House, on WNTI. I decided to play a cut of the CD on his show. Hey, they’re not my ratings. My better half, the lovely and talented Mary Mitchell, was listening in. I should explain that Mary is a heavy metal fan. Most people wouldn’t suspect it to look at her but she’s pretty knowledgeable and has her criterion: a good heavy metal band should look and sound like trolls. Pat Boone comes nowhere near that ideal.

Mary asked me what was on my mind to play that track. I explained that none of us at the radio station actually listened to it; we turned off the monitors about thirty seconds into the song so we didn’t have to listen to it. I think that’s where I lost Mary as a regular listener to my radio hijinks. She did listen to the track all the way through.

This is one of my definitions of love – despite having trick-bagged her into listening to something that I couldn’t, she still cares about me.

If Mary hasn’t found the CD, I probably still have it around somewhere.

Wandering over to the DVD section, I find my copy of Barb Wire. I knew the Dark Horse comic on which the movie was based and stumbled on the movie starring Pamela Lee Anderson while channel surfing late one night. I, like millions of Americans, ignored it in its theatrical release but I thought it was worth pausing long enough to see if Pam popped out of whatever she was wearing. It was late night and my standards of viewing are pretty low after midnight.

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INTERVIEW: Harlan Ellison, part 1

INTERVIEW: Harlan Ellison, part 1

  • News
  • April 16, 2007

Harlan Ellison is a force of nature.

For more than 50 years he’s published stories and novels, written for television, movies, and comics, created an award-winning CD-Rom, lectured widely, performed TV voice-overs and spoken word recordings, and been an all-around pain-in-the-ass curmudgeon. This month alone, Deep Shag Records issued his newest CD, On the Road with Harlan Ellison (Volume 3, no less) and a 105-minute theatrical documentary about him, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, will have its premiere at the Writers Guild in Beverly Hills on Thursday, April 19 (for information about all of this, and to get tickets for the Guild Event, go to www.harlanellison.com).

Dark Horse Comics just released Harlan Ellison’s Dream Corridor Volume Two, a book ten years in the making, with contributions from Gene Ha, Curt Swan, Martin Nodell, Gene Colan, Jay Lynch, Eric Shanower, Tony Isabella, Richard Corben, John Ostrander and more.

I first heard Ellison speak more than 25 years ago, at an event to which ComicMix sensei Denny O’Neil brought us. I no longer remember precisely what he said, but do remember being so angry about it that I was awake all night, arguing with him in my head. Ten years later, when the rabbi’s sermon provoked a similar response, I knew I’d found the synagogue for me. Jews are like that.

Reb Ellison is still schooling. Our interview started off awkwardly, as we called to arrange a schedule and Mr. Ellison wanted to go with no notice. After a pause while we ran out to buy batteries for our antique cassette recorder, we began.

HE: I live my life principally by one adage – Louis Pasteur: Chance favors the prepared mind. Thus, if you call me, you should have batteries. Now we know we’re running. Now you can interview me. Go ahead.

CoMx: You have a new graphic novel, you have a new CD, you have this movie coming out. Why now?

HE: Because though I’m incredibly humble and shy, I am, nonetheless, famous … I’m a cultural icon. Everyone gets their 15 minutes, and if they have some talent they get their 15 minutes repeatedly. My 15 minutes have been going on since about 1955.

One finds, at this age, the most annoying thing you have to worry about is cultural amnesia. For most of the little imbeciles today who live on the Internet, for whom nostalgia is what they had for breakfast, all the golden things and evil lessons of the past have no significance, no meaning, no understanding that whatever they do would not be possible had not the world, its artistic heroes, villains, done what they did before their smug, ignorant li’l asses were born. They know nothing, and are arrogant that they know nothing. “Bite me” is their mantra. They don’t even know the name of who won on American Idol last year or who came in second or who won the Academy Award, much less who Sojourner Truth was, or Lanny Ross, or Tris Speaker, or Subotai, or Klimt or Frank Buck, or Eddie Condon, or … or anything earlier than Sanjaya Malakar and Beyonce’s thong.

But they are quick to label geezer and old coot everybody who did anything the day before they were born. I consider myself very lucky still to have a large following and a loyal following in these parlous times, and I think, some interesting enemies, too.

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Conan The Historian

Conan The Historian

  • News
  • April 7, 2007

This September (the 26th, if you’ve got a "Week At A Glance"), our friends at Dark Horse will be releasing the difinitive story behind one of their leading franchises. Paul Sammon’s CONAN THE PHENOMENON promises to offer a complete look at the mostly naked barbarian, covering Robert E. Howard’s original stories, the subsequent prose authors, and all the comics incarnations – including those produced by such masters as Roy Thomas, Barry Smith, John Buscema, and Timothy Truman.

The Schwartzenegger movies will not be ignored. At least, not by Sammon or, for that matter, by the voters of California.

One cannot produce such a tome without offering tons of illustrations, and this book promises to be up to the task. Of course, it will sport a Frank Frazetta cover (above). The introduction is being provided by Elric’s daddy, the eternal champion himself, Michael Moorcock.

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Emperor’s New Clothes

MICHAEL DAVIS: The Emperor’s New Clothes

  • News
  • April 7, 2007

I don’t really have a subject for this week, which explains why I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon with a Friday morning deadline. Sorry, Mike. Nothing really ticked me off or got me excited this week. That’s an issue for me because when I took this gig I made a promise to keep it current and to always have a definitive point of view.

Well, what follows are some random thoughts that I may as well get off my chest. None of these things really warrant an entire column (yet) but they all have my interest,

Remember the story of the Emperor’s new clothes?  Well that seems to be what is going on with American Idol. Major newscasts like the Today Show (who made my greatest list last week) are all saying that this kid Sanjaya Malakar can’t sing.

HELLO!!!!!????

Even before America stared to vote this kid beat out thousands of other singers to make it to the show. Now everyone is saying he can’t sing. Why? Because one person said he could not sing after one bad performance and now everybody is saying it. What is up with people? People are just sheep! He is clearly not the best singer on the show, but the kid can sing. Why are people such sheep? Why, why, why?

Sheep, sheep, sheep!

In other random thoughts, in case anyone is interested I will be speaking at the Biola Media Conference April 21st at Biola University and at Cal State Northridge on April 23rd. Maybe the person who sent me the angry email will want to come down and heckle me.

What angry email? The angry email that I was sent in response to The Black Panel article I wrote. They told me “You are a Uncle Tom who does not care about Black People. We have a right to be represented and you should let any black person on the panel who wants to be there.” They also said that I was…” one of those uppity (N-word) who only dates white woman!” (My Asian lady loved that one.)

Well, fellow and or gal (I don’t know what you are because you sent the email anonymously – how brave, by the way), if you are feeling strong come on down and take your best shot. Hey wait. Why don’t you speak at the conference or at Northridge. I’m sure they will just let you walk in off the street and talk about your work or whatever you want to talk about. I mean you are entitled right? Wait! Now that I think about, it why don’t you just walk on to the Tonight Show? I’m sure they will just let you be a guest. Wait! What am I thinking?? Why doesn’t ABC just do a special on you? I mean you have certainly earned the right to have your own show right?  Wait, wait wait!!! Not a show –you deserve your own NETWORK!!! I mean why not? Wait, wait wait, wait, why don’t they just hand you your own galaxy? 

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Spider-Man 3 at Tribeca Film Festival

Spider-Man 3 at Tribeca Film Festival

  • News
  • April 4, 2007

The Tribeca Film Festival, normally held entirely in Manhattan’s Tribeca district (it stands for "TRIangle BElow CAnal street") today announced Spider-Man 3 will have a star-studed gala premiere in Queens at the UA Kaufman Astoria 14 Theater.  With a marching band, a "black" carpet and lots and lots of celebrities, it’s the culmination of Spider-Man Week in New York.

The Festival will also present other screenings in other boroughs, which the press release says will be free and open to the public.  "Tribeca is thrilled to be premiering Spider-Man 3 and to be a part of ‘Spider-Man Week in NYC,’" said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Festival. "Bringing exciting and new events to NYC and its community is one of the major goals of the festival.  Hosting the U.S. premiere of Spider-Man 3 in Queens and celebrating the release throughout the festival will give us the opportunity to reach out to a new community as well as to the devoted fan-base of the Spider-Man series."

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Ellison, Groth sign historic peace accord

Ellison, Groth sign historic peace accord

  • News
  • April 1, 2007

In what is being widely heralded as the only diplomatic success during the Bush Administration, today a treaty was signed between Gary Groth, publisher of Fantagraphics, and Harlan Ellison, professional Harlan Ellison impersonater, at the Portland, OR headquarters of Dark Horse Comics.

"We were glad we could finally bring this conflict to an end," said Mike Richardson, Dark Horse’s publisher. "We found ourselves in the crossfire between the Fantagraphics army to the north and the Ellison guerillas to the south. And even though we were widely perceived as Ellison sympathizers due to our publishing Dream Corridor, we were able to convince Gary that since we had published Harlan’s work in the past, we wanted to throttle him as badly as anybody else. Gary understood that, and that led to our first breakthrough in talks."

Details of the treaty have not been made fully public, but we understand that as Ellison’s forces will be returning prisoners to Fantagraphics on the condition that they also take two of Ellison’s ex-wives and "some big creepy guy who’s been following me around ever since I stopped doing the Hour 25 radio show. Joe Stranucci, or Syzygy, or Sienkiewicz, or something… I never know how to pronounce it."

Dirk Deppey, Fantagraphics spokesperson, has announced now that conflicts have ended there will be a multi-volume set of The Complete Ellison Lawsuits coming out, with the first volume due next April and new volumes coming out every six weeks after. The entire series should be out by 2017.

MARTHA THOMASES: About genres

MARTHA THOMASES: About genres

  • News
  • March 28, 2007

Over the weekend I started to read Will Self’s most recent novel, The Book of Dave. Like so much of Self’s work, this volume could quite comfortably be racked in the science fiction section of your bookstore. Set five or six centuries in a post-apocalyptic future, English culture has evolved based on its sacred text, the recovered letter from a divorced father, Dave, to his son.

It took me the better part of two hours to read the first chapter, which is only 27 pages long. In addition to creating a new religion, Self created a new language, an educated guess as to how English would mutate over the centuries. He thoughtfully provided a glossary in the back, but it still required me to extrapolate a great deal from my limited knowledge of English geography and manners.

This is my idea of fun.

Self is a writer who speculates in the most outrageous ways. In Great Apes, he created an England in which apes are the most evolved primates, and the culture is adapted accordingly. In How the Dead Lives, he imagined that, when you die, you get a dull, clerical job in the suburbs of London.

You won’t find Self’s books in the science fiction or fantasy sections of your bookstores or libraries. You also won’t find Riddley Walker, a book by Russell Hoban that’s a clear antecedent to The Book of Dave (Self wrote an introduction to a reissue of Hoban’s classic in 2002). You won’t find Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings, a novel about the pharaohs that includes mental telepathy, magic and time travel.

No, these are “literary” fiction, and they get racked with other novels that, allegedly, belong to no genre, like Waiting to Exhale, Oliver Twist, or Portnoy’s Complaint.

Genre is a useful construct. Sometimes, you want to find a book about a particular subject, whether it’s true love or rocket ships or murder. Putting those books together is a service to the reader. If prose books were racked all together, in simple alphabetical order, you might find Dickens next to the Dummies guides.

That’s about as useful as putting all the graphic novels together.

It’s not as bad as it used to be. Ten years ago, you’d find Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen next to Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury in the Humor section. Booksellers now realize that just because something is called a “comic book,” it’s not necessarily funny.

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300 @ 152 & counting

300 @ 152 & counting

  • News
  • March 19, 2007

Frank Miller’s 300 has turned into quite a little motion picture empire, grossing not only a portion of its audience but a whopping $152,000,000 worldwide in its first 10 days of release.

Of course, by "worldwide" we mean that portion of the world that’s showing the movie thus far. Most of the planet has yet to enjoy the experience. By the way, 300 is doing quite well in Greece.

Given a lengthy stay in theaters, openings in the rest of the world, and DVD sales later this year, Warner Bros. is expecting to see well over $300,000,000 in total grosses. Not bad for a flick that cost $65,000,000 to make.

Dark Horse is rushing another 80,000 copies of the original graphic novel to the bookstores.

Buffy wows ’em

Buffy wows ’em

  • News
  • March 16, 2007

The notable part of Dark Horse’s announcement about selling out its initial print run of Buffy: Season 8 #1 is that it actually announced how large that print run was.  It’s common to hear about sell-outs these days, but hard to tell whether they’re actually puffed up to look more important than they are because companies never say how many comics a sell-out constitutes.

So congrats to Dark Horse that this much-anticipated success lived up to the hype, as did the movie based on that little book of Frank Miller’s that they published a few years back.  Over a hundred thousand issues of any monthly comic book periodical these days is very welcome news, even more so when the book is presumed to have wide appeal beyond American comics’ usual demographic.

Needless to say, Dark Horse is going back to print.

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